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Ice-eye's Blindness
By: Cinderleap ;3 (Note: This is my own work and only mine.) Allegiances: PantherClan Leader: Lightningstar - Long limbed golden tom. Deputy: Daisynose - Bright ginger she-cat. Medicine Cat: Fallowfern - Long furred grey tom. Apprentice - Sharppaw Warriors: Poppyspots - Reddish she-cat with white speckles. -Apprentice - Fennelpaw Nightfur - Tall black tom. Swanstrike - White long furred she-cat. Tigerfur - Orange she-cat with many black tabby stripes. -Apprentice - Icepaw Apprentices: Icepaw - Long furred white she-cat with icy blue eyes. Fennelpaw - Pale grey she-cat with pale green eyes. Sharppaw - Dark grey tom with blue eyes.' ' Icepaw dug her way through a patch prickly fronds. Dew found its way from leaf to leaf in the maple trees high above her, eventually dappling Icepaw’s white, long-furred pelt with water. However, this didn’t bother her as it might normally. Nothing would stop her from passing her Warrior assessment! Her mentor, Tigerfur, was supposed to be watching her on her assessment, but Icepaw couldn’t even find a trace of her orange striped pelt in the underbrush, or even a scent. Figures. Icepaw thought, because in the dew-licked forest, scents were blocked out by all the water everywhere. Perfect time for a hunting assessment, huh? Icepaw recalled earlier that dawn when a very certain orange paw shook her awake. Icepaw lifted her head into the air, and twitched her whiskers. Prey, prey, prey. Why didn’t prey appear when she needed it to? A couple of long wanted heartbeats later, the warm scent of mouse lifted. Tracking down from where the scent appeared, she found the scent trail lead to a juniper bush. Icepaw swiftly and silently dropped into her hunter’s crouch, being careful of the wind flow. She crept so quietly towards the mouse in the silent forest, she was afraid her heart beating so fast and loudly would alert the mouse. Icepaw waited for just the right moment when the mouse would turn a little bit closer. A couple heartbeats to early, she pounced into the bush, but the mouse was alerted, and was already scurrying away towards its den. Icepaw dug her way through the prickly, dew licked leaves fast and furiously, and reached out extended claws at the mouse, whom was kicking small pebbles on the damp earthy floor, struggling to free itself from Icepaw’s tight grasp. She winced as one of the sharper ones hit her open eye. Icepaw quickly delivered the killing bite and emerged the juniper bush victorious, tightly grasping the mouse in her jaws. She only realized then how plump it was. The white she-cat dug a hole in the ground. Just the right size, like Tigerfur said, Not too steep, not to shallow, not too big, not too tiny, and so buried the mouse, scratching open dirt on it. Icepaw raised her head again, and searched for the scent of prey, but instead found a whiff of her mentor’s scent. You thought you could hide? Ha ha! So thinking, Icepaw decided that she would catch one more thing, before stalking her mentor. She lifted her pale ink nose again, and whiskers twitching, she scented blackbird. Icepaw looked up to where she’d gotten the whiff, and saw nothing? She looked closer. Finally, the white she-cat squinting could make out the frame of a skinny blackbird in one of the Great Maple Trees. Icepaw began to climb by the nearest bark, but then remembered what Tigerfur had told her. Don’t climb from the ring of trees from the inside, it’s disrespectful. Climb them from the outside bark to hunt. Icepaw pushed herself off the tree, making sure not to disturb any bark. “Sorry,” Icepaw mumbled at the trees. It felt weird talking to trees, of all things, but Icepaw knew it was better to apologize. Walking around to the opposite side of the tree, she was relieved that the blackbird hadn’t flown away in her moments of hesitation. Icepaw abruptly felt a stab of pain in her eye. She flinched, shutting her eyes closed to help ease the shock of pain. Maybe it was just some dust. But in the dewey morning forest? Icepaw pushed the sinking doubt about her eye into the back of her mind. Readying herself for the high jump to the nearest branch, Icepaw bunched up her hind legs. She barely made any noise on the landing, and had to sink her claws into the tree bark just to keep her from falling down. Gritting her teeth, she clawed up the tree to the next highest branch, just a fox length up away from her. Sighing in exhaustion, Icepaw looked up. The bird was only two branches ahead of her. She started to pull herself up, and then as she made her way to the next branch, she looked down at the dizzying fall. Surely if she fell she’d break something. Icepaw felt her paws start to slip beneath her on the branch, and for a heartbeat, she felt as if she was going to plummet to the ground. Icepaw struggled to lift herself up onto the branch again, and after some scrambling, managed to stay on the branch, and quickly regained a more steady balance. She looked up. The bird hadn’t sensed her yet, and Icepaw was relatively surprised. Settling into a more comfortable position, she aimed a leap at the bird. It squacked, and tried to fly away, but the white she-cat was too fast for it. She scored her claws into the bird’s flesh. Just as she was about to mount the killing bite, she supposed about what would happen in this midair fiasco. After the killing bite, she and the bird would topple down to their sure deaths. So thinking, Icepaw grasped tightly onto the bird. Quickly, they both descended the tree until they were only but a couple fox lengths off the ground. Sudden pain seared through Icepaw’s eye, and for a terrible moment, her grasp loosened on the bird. It thrashed and beat its wings at this opportunity, but Icepaw quickly reared up on the bird and sent it crashing towards the ground. Her eye felt like it was on fire. The fall felt like forever, until they hit the soft earthy floor. Icepaw fell on her side. The bird fell dead. Tigerfur rushed out of her hiding spot in the bushes, bright green eyes darkened and clouded with worry. Her scent was mingled with damp forestlike scents and her own. “Are you alright, Icepaw?” Were the last words Icepaw heard as she felt a wave of darkness close around her. “I think she just fell exhausted, but I can’t say her eye is any better.” A normally quiet and gentle voice was tense and tight. Icepaw opened her eyes to the dim light of the medicine cat den. The scents smelled sweet and filled with the minty smelling herbs. But something felt wrong. One side of her face felt- different. “Oh, you’re awake.” Fallowfern looked at her kindly, but Icepaw could see the fear blooming in his eyes. “Yes, you’ve been asleep for a few days.” The medicine cat told her with great anxiety, there was no hiding it. Icepaw recognized her brother’s scent padding up towards her in the den. “Hi, Icepaw.” Icepaw looked at him with useasy curiosity. Her brother looked queasy and anxious, unlike his regular happy and chipper attitude. “Sharppaw, you look like I just died!” Icepaw joked. Moments of awkward silence followed. “Oh, and Icepaw, I’m Sharpeye now.” Sharpeye broke the unwilling silence. His blue eyes kept flickering to either directions, and her brother kept looking like he didn’t want to see her awake. He was obviously trying to make her feel better. She knew her brother like the back of her paw. But why? A dangerous thought struck her. “Has Fennelpaw gotten her warrior name too!?” Icepaw sat up abruptly in the feather-lined nest. “Oh, no Lightningstar was waiting for you.” Fallowfern replied, and continued to stare her down. Quickly avoiding their eyes, Icepaw looked outside. She could see one way out of the den, but what about the other? It was completely black. Icepaw shot out of her next and frantically shoved her way out of the den. Sharpeye and Fallowfern’s eyes shot open in surprise and Icepaw stared outside. The same side of the world was black. Icepaw’s white paws thumped on the soft earthy ground and cats moved out of her way in surprise when she came barging through. She didn’t remember which cats called her back, what they said, or even what cats she passed. She took charge into the forest. Heartbeat accelerating, Icepaw dove under dead branches and bushes and hurtled over logs and bracken until she reached her final spot. Icepaw was out of breath, not because of her wild run, because of her fear to stare into the reflective pond. She’d heard of Thornface, he’d lost his sight in one eye because it got infected by a braken thorn. I see now or I see later, Icepaw thought as she held tight to her breath as she peered down into the glistening pool. She looked perfectly normal. Maybe my eye is fine. Maybe I was just imagining things. But only a couple heartbeats later did she realize, one of her eyes did not look normal. It looked- dead. It was clouded and faded so badly that it didn’t look icy blue anymore, it looked a deadly white. She was out of breath. How had this happened? Did it happen in her assessment when that mouse kicked a pebble in her eye? The white she-cat staggered backwards in disbelief. She curled up in a dead tree stump, but the wretched scents didn't even occur to her. Icepaw started to softly cry, tears streaming from one eye. Closing her eyes to a dark blackness, Icepaw felt tiny as she wondered how her life had taken this turn. “I call upon my Warrior ancestors to approve of these two apprentices.” Lightningstar spoke clearly in the night sky. Just the day before, Icepaw learned that she had successfully passed her assessment, but also learned that she was newly blind in one eye. She hated not being able to see properly. Icepaw's sister, Fennelpaw, was anxiously tapping her foot besides her, and was shaking with excitement. Icepaw, on the other paw, was sitting grumpily and rolled her eyes at her sister. What was there to be excited about? Fennelpaw would probably get a weird name like Fennelfur or Fennelfoot anyways. And Icepaw would probably be named Deadeye or Brokenface or whatnot. She liked her name as it was. But, then again, Fennelpaw would be a Warrior and Sharpeye would be a medicine cat, and she’d still be the lone apprentice. “Poppyspots, has Fennelpaw learned the ways of a Warrior?” The reddish she-cat's eyes glimmered bright yellow. Fennelpaw's mentor smiled proudly and answered. “Yes.” I won't be hearing that with glee, ''Icepaw thought darkly as Fennelpaw was beaming with joy. Loneliness washed over Icepaw. “And Tigerfur, has Icepaw learned the ways of a Warrior?” Icepaw could see the uneasiness crash over her leader. His voice stayed strong and bold, but his eyes told another story, glittered with fear. If he feared that the other Clans would disrespect him just for making a half-blind cat a Warrior, Icepaw would gladly just ditch all of them. Around her, ripples of worried murmurs spread throughout the camp. ''Thornface survived, and so will I. Icepaw was entirely surprised when Tigerfur answered Lightningstar. “Yes.” Her mentor’s eyes were glowing with not tethering uneasiness, but with warming pride. This sent a surge of strength into Icepaw. No one respected her in this Clan in the past few days, just a bunch of fake, “Oh, I feel bad for you,”s, and “I hope you feel better,”s. I will feel better if you actually take me seriously for once! I’m still a cat! But when she saw Tigerfur smile at her just like that, Icepaw knew instantly that everything would be just fine. Icepaw cracked a smile. It had felt like forever since she had. “Then, from now on, Fennelpaw, you shall be known as Fennelstripe. StarClan honors you strength and bravery.” Lightningstar announced. She turned his golden pelt towards Icepaw. “And from now on, Icepaw, you shall be known as-” Lightningstar paused. Icepaw fixed her good eye on him. Was he not going to give her a Warrior name? Just the thought sent a sickening feeling into Icepaw’s belly. Lightningstar beckoned the Clan silence with a wave with his tail. The murmurs of predictions about her newfound name didn’t help the situation. After a long moment of silence, he spoke. “You shall be known as, Ice-eye. May StarClan light your path.” Ice-eye was shocked. He didn’t give her a very cruel name, but still cruel. She’d only blinded her eye in her Warrior assessment. The world was suddenly empty, with no sound, just the unhearable dialogue of everyone around her. Jaws opened and closed, each time with no sound. But Ice-eye was still trapped in her swirling thoughts. Everything was spinning. Shouldn’t she be respected as everyone else? Why did Lightningstar give her a cruel name? Did everyone think it was fine and that she very much deserved it? The sounds of the Clan cheering out her names suddenly exploded in her head. Noise suddenly filled the air with chants and squeals of happiness. “Ice-eye! Fennelstripe!” The Clan cheered. Ice-eye looked at the crowd of cats. Her parents, Swanstrike and Nightfur were beaming with pride, cherishing the moment. Did her parents really accept her for who she was now? A breeze smoothed down Ice-eye’s pelt. Both of her eyes were sparkling with joy. This is what she wanted. Her name wasn’t a sign of cruelty, or a sign of that she wasn’t accepted. It was a sign of loyalty and faith. Thornface wasn’t named for his accident, but for the fierceness he carried after the accident. He was one of the strongest and bravest Warriors of all time. He was still a Warrior. And I’ll be the best one too. I promise. This is my home now, and It’ll be mine forever.